How can I stop squirrels from eating out of my hanging suet bird feeder?
I have read many times that red pepper (Cayenne) would make the squirrels leave the food along but the squirrels in my area must love hot stuff because it does not even slow them down.
The only way that I have found to conquer this problem was to attach the suet cages on the bird feeders and I use baffles on all my bird feeder poles and keep them away from any hanging branches.
Some bird feeders have suet cages attached and baffles can be bought at most all stores like Walmart, Target, Lowe's or Ace Hardware or farm supply stores. Some people make their own baffles.
The squirrels in my area have plenty to eat without eating the suet I make for my birds.
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I make my own suet and usually put a tablespoon of cayenne pepper in the mixture to ward off squirrels from eating it. Unfortunately I bought red pepper by mistake, can anyone tell me if I use it instead will it make any difference?
Gathering from many comments I have read over time (I make suet for my birds every winter) it seems that squirrels may even like plain ole red pepper and the birds may never get to taste it.
You would be better off using no flavoring.
Hello ! Actually what is sold as "Cayenne pepper" is not made with peper it is a mixture of ingredients including piment, most of the time it is piment, flour and salt. Piment is a member of the Capsicum annuum family and is usually produced in Central and South America when peper is from the Piperaceae family (piper=peper), it comes from India, Penjab, Madagascar. Green, white or black peper are different stage of maturation of the same plant's fruits, there is no bright red peper and peper doesn't suffocates or burns as much as some piments do. The other big difference with piment is that peper is very expensive. It means that what you buy as Cayenne peper is red piment just like Paprika is red piment too.
I plan to make my own suet for the birds. What can I also include to keep the squirrels from eating it? I have a pair of woodpeckers that come daily, and now I have baby ones coming, but the squirrels keep eating most of the suet.
Can I mix cayenne pepper in and how much or chopped up regular hot peppers?
Thank you any help would be appreciated.
Make sure the suet has no seeds or nuts. You can also store it in a cage within a cage.
